we seem to be accident prone…………on the news to-nite Martinsays that he does not read any papers or watch TV & is used to this kind of thing…I think that he should be doing the above he might learn a few things…………sometimes good advice from the fans…………..I for one do not believe that he is not aware of what is being said about him………….I beleive!!!!!!

Watch highlights from four or five games any given night. Most goals are not pretty. They are manufactured. We do not, generally, go to the net and create chaos.

Pure scorers don’t shoot into the goalie’s logo. They try and go against the grain, use a screen, wait 1/4 beat or use a very quick release. Peripheral shots thrown at the net are never wasted, good things can happen, but they are low percentage.

I’d love to see a chart of where are shots come from compared with successful teams. The players we have who can and will go to the net and create a mess can be counted on one hand. Plex, MaxPax, Cole, DD (who is willing but not necessarily able), big AK when the mood is on him, and Cammi, when he feels like it. Eller may get there eventually.

We are not using are speed to create opportunities, either that or the system doesn’t allow it, or when we do create, we can’t finish.

That’s it in a nutshell. Of course having a QB like Markov would help. But if we wait for him it will be too late.

…God to Jacques; “You’re asking a fast, skilled and not overly physical team to play a dump-and-chase, shutdown game. Let Me see, how can I explain this? It’s like asking the Queen to mud wrestle.”

…Jacques to God; “Um, is there any chance I can save my job?
…The Almighty: There is a chance. All things are possible with Me. You must repent and put The System behind you. You must use the players I have given you properly and you must lay off the Brylcreem. It went out in the ’60s.”

…God to Jacques; “I’m…uh…sorry about the ears. That was an accident. Good luck!”

People who are wanting Kirk Muller to possibly replace Jacques Martin as coach – How come if he is so suitable to be a head coach for Montreal. Why did he not get hired as a head coach by other NHL teams this past summer ?

I don’t think we’ll see Emelin on the wing on Wednesday. If Weber practiced as a defenceman then he is in and Emelin’s out, but with Max Pac needing the day off from practice someone had to skate on the wing today and since Emelin was just standing around, they used him. I expect to see the same 18 skaters dressed tomorrow as I did last night.

“Andrei Kostitsyn is a better hockey player than Max Pacioretty”
– Sean Bonjovi

Some great points from Scott Cullen at tsn.ca:
What makes Montreal’s 1-5-2 start so maddening is that the Habs are outshooting their opposition 33.9 to 26.6 on average. The margin of 7.3 shots per game ranks third in the league, so it’s a matter of getting some of the percentages to regress to the mean.

To wit, Montreal is scoring on 6.6% of their shots (which ranks 27th in the league), while opponents are scoring on 11.7% of their shots (also 27th in the league). Unless the Canadiens are taking unusually low percentage and allowing unusually high percentage shots, these numbers should not hold long-term.

By comparison, with Carey Price enjoying a strong season last year, the Habs allowed 8.1% of opponent’s shots to score, while scoring on a modest 8.2% in their own right.

Given the shot differential they are establishing this season, if those percentages come back closer to league average, the tide should turn, but if the Canadiens can’t get healthy, the odds are against the percentages turning in their favour anytime soon.

The increase in shots taken is coming from Pacioretty and Darche, neither of whom is a proven scorer. I do not think those two players will keep taking a combined seven shots per game for the rest of the season. The regression is more likely to fewer shots taken and not to higher scoring percentage.

If the powerplay and penalty kill improve, Montreal will score on a higher percentage of their shots and stop a higher percentage of shots taken against them.

I need the data on from where Montreal is taking their shots to determine if they are snakebit or have poor shot selection. A power forward like Pacioretty should be scoring on 10% of their shots, not 5%. But the sample is so small that it is hard to reach a conclusion as to why his percentage is so low.

edit: I wish him a speedy recovery, but if Pacioretty has a broken wrist, the shots per game will be down by 5 in a hurry.

…this is now ‘the opportunity’ for Geoff Molson to put His imprimatura on this Team’s painting
…it’s like is He going to remain happy and Devil-may-care selling Us Ladas On Ice because He has the market cornered ? …or, will He say to Himself I think I and My Fans deserve a Lamborghini On Ice ?

That’s not a notepad, it’s a “Line-O-Matic”. It works like those word search puzzles. You know, you find names in the jumbled mess, whether across, down, diagonally, or backward. Just find 3, circle them, and voila…a line.

Agree if changes happen this year any replacements are tagged “interim” then we can have that exhaustive search again like we had when hiring Gauthier….. oh man I am bitter today, I just slagged Gainey.

Let’s get some suggestions.
My thought for Roy is that he has been a head coach long enough, albeit in the Q. He also has the passion and communication skills. The catch is if we get a good young coach, we need to leave him in place for at least 3-4 years without firing him at the first sign of trouble.
Gretzky is a very good hockey mind. His first stint as a coach may not have been great but I still think he can put a strong team together.
That being said, I’m not against experienced coaches, but I’m also tired of the dinosaurs.

Go Habs Go!!

“Fans are great, but the quickest way to start losing is to listen to them.” – Sam Pollock

Bruins will always call us divers but their style of play led to what?? A whole six cups. Well, at least we’re not cheap. Scotty Bowman even said that in Boston, they used to do a horrible job of cleaning the ice in their end to try to slow the Habs down.

You know what?? At least the Flyers know their dirty and own up to it. The Beuins are the biggest crybabies in the league. The refs practically hug them when they score but they bawl like babies when they think someone did something to them.

@joshua94k: in response to your response of HabsFanMTL – That’s the reasoning that finds us in this mess. I’d take a hundred double-minor boarding penalties instead of one more too many men. Start hurting, I didn’t say injure, some people and maybe opposing teams will think twice about chippy play. Down here in Bruinville everyone calls this team the”Montreal Diving Team”. I’d much rather “dirty” or “cheap-shot”. It is disgusting to watch nobody stand up for a) themselves b) a teammate, especially the goalie. Someone sucker punch the next guy who even breathes on Price, Plecks, Cammy, DD, Patches, or PK. This pussy-footing around nonsense sucks. Where is the “ESPRIT DE CORPS”?

…100 %
…We are ‘the hippies’ of the NHL …ugh ! …Peace Man !
…after Carey, DD and PK are man-handled, We raise Our fingers in a V
…I’d much prefer We gave the man-handlers a punch in the mush
…this a big-part of the reason that Our Fans are saying enough is enough to Martin and Gauthier
…all good reading to contemplate Our tender side at times, but human nature being what ‘it is’, when You are too soft, there are those that WILL take advantage
…that’s the reality of Life …and THAT is the reality of Hockey
…Hockey is NOT the ideal sport for a pacifist

I hear that. If you can’t stand the fire…
How disgusted do you get when everyone stands around watching a Habs player getting pushed around. Some (Diaz, Cole) pretend nothing is happening and just skate away to the bench. I don’t care if your small, look at Gio, he get’s in there in a heartbeat. If I were their teammate there would be a fight in the lockerrroom.

So we need to go 45 and 29 now to muster 94 points which may or may not get you into a playoff spot …. we could go 40 wins, 24 losses and 10 OTL’s…but no matter how you slice it this slump is huuuuge and has made things very, very difficult….more difficult than we want to admit. Is it time to make some drastic changes? Maybe not now but another 3 or 4 games of this and we are pretty much cooked … I seriously think if healty we are a top 5 conference team …after this start, witht he injuries…there is a very real possiblity we are lottery pick territory depending on how long before we get healthier on the back end. We have enough depth to manage up front but Markov was a tremendous loss without Wizniewski and Hammer around….we could have survived a loss to anyone except Markov or Price IMO…
that’s the way the cookie crumbles I guess…

2. Bruins and Flyers among others will take relish in not only beating us but roughing us up. Martin doesn’t care (remember his reaction to the MaxPac incident), but I hate to see it.

3. Teams will continue to take runs at Carey Price.

Conclusion?

We need a goon. No, not a Konopka who can take face offs and wrestle other middleweights to a draw, but an honest to goodness borderline psychopathic goon. A guy who if he wasn’t in the NHL would be in some godforsaken penitentiary in Saskatchewan or Manitoba.

Hate to agree but before we lose Price (injury or otherwise) it will have to be such. I am still fuming over Grabosky playing rodeo on Price’s back while Diaz was watching, wondering what to do next.
I find it hard to believe that everyone involved in the running of this team is not getting the simple message that you need to protect your assets.

How many more losses does it take before every single poster on here agrees that our team is just tooooo small, with no big brother to save the little guys from beatings in the corner, and no bruising D men to save Price and the little wee D men we have from getting cross checked and face washed after every whistle?
Never mind having forwards on the opposing team skating over the blue line like it’s non-contact hockey.

For the person comparing Rene Bourque’s aggressiveness to that of Kostitsyn’s well you must be losing it. How many time have you seen AK46 cut to the net? How many times has he dropped the gloves and defended himself. Maybe you should youtube Bourque and clue into reality. I mean this in the nicest way, lol.

Just listened to the videos. Carey has lots of polish these days. He can be speaking for a minute and a half and rattle off every cliche in the book. Having said that, you gotta love the garter belt line.

Cammy and Gionta. I would really like to know why we broke with tradition and named the captain instead of letting the players vote. If they did have a say, I wonder who they would have chosen. Cammy? Gionta? Markov? None of the above?

Regardless, all three of these guys have to step up their games this week.

Our current roster lacks real hockey (scoring) skills, is to small, too light, and really delicate (injury prone). Our D is either very slow or very soft but in any event there is not a team in the league that respects (fears) them. The team in general appears to lack intensity, drive, coordination and leadership.

I hate to say it but start over or we’ll be crying this same tune in another 20 years.

… 🙂 what makes Our current malaise and disorientation even more frustrating and soul-sucking is da Turdranna MuppleWeeds’ bell-curve is orienting ‘upwards’ while Ours is plunging towards Federal Reserve intervention mode
…if Joe Colbourne turns-out to be even a Joe Thornton lite …I will plunge into hara kiri despondency 🙁

how bad can our D be really? we allowed 2 goals last night …..but i do agree we need size and grit to avenge any price bashing, Bring up Alex Henry , he isn’t any slower than Hal Gill, he is tougher than Hal Gill , he gives hard body checks unlike Hall Gill and he drops the gloves Unlike Hall Gill. And if anyone dare hit Carey Price, u can be sure Alex Henry will make him pay !

Has anyone considered that JM might actually be suffering from encroaching middle aged dementia?

These line combos are almost like the Monty Python skit where the drill sergeant has the troops practicing how to kill someone with a vegetable. If they get good at that, they graduate to pointy sticks.

I get the spread out the scoring, 3 lines theory when we’re healthy, but doesn’t it make sense to now, accept our fate and put out two stacked (relative to our scoring prowess) instead of trying to spread it over three? Something like,

Cammy-Pleks-AK
Cole-Eller-Gio

Or DD in Eller’s spot, not as a knock on Eller, but he might be better suited to a more grinding line with Darche and Moen.

Just a thought.

Also, in the interests of completely delusional optimism….maybe a lot of adversity early in the season is better than a mid-season slump? Like maybe this will make the team band together and they’ll turn things around and what doesn’t kill them makes them stronger?

Are all the folks horrified by Emelin practicing as a forward also the ones who say we need a gritty 4th liner? Y’all haven’t forgotten we’re playing Philly and the Bruins, have ya? If this is a way to keep Emelin in the game, along with BOTH the experienced Spacek and the defensively superior Weber (at least by stats), why not? I don’t think it’s permanent assignment, so we don’t all need to lose our cookies over it. Emelin could also play point on the PP. It’s just a practice and may not be implemented in the game at all. If you don’t try it, you’ll never know if it would have worked out. I think the plan would had been for Diaz to sit out 1 or 2 of those games but the injury to Max nullified that idea. Be prepared for Diaz to make some defensive errors — but we’re going to let the kids play, right?

Criticize JM for other things — having Dezzy over Nokia for a crucial F/O, not trying Cole on the PP, having Darche on a 5 on 3 pp — but not this. It’s just a practice.

Mr. Solo, while I indeed want a bigger 4th line, it appears Emelin has little to no experience playing forward. It also is true that he has little to no experience playing Defence on North American Ice. So of all our Dman who are facing a big enough struggle at this juncture, why pick Emelin to move to forward. Especially when you have Weber who has done this before. Weber can still play point on PP.

Boston and PHilly will present far bigger physical challenges to our Dmen in our zone than Florida. I personally feel Emelins size is far greater needed on the Defence than at forward for these games.

And if it is just for practise, again I ask, why eff around with Emelin. And if it is just for practise, does that mean we aren’t dressing Emelin for Philly?

HIB, I respect your opinion — you may well be right and I agree Weber has played forward more than Emelin. Believe me, JM makes it hard to for anyone to defend him, and I’m not saying he’s the greatest coach ever. (That guy in Pittsburgh is looking pretty good right now — but we still beat him in the playoffs as did Boucher last year). But I suppose he’s trying to get the best defense out there while not losing any more grit than he has to. It may not work out at all. But Emelin over Weber on the 4th line means Weber will in all likelihood play more — which I assume is what JM wants. His being on the 4th line does not preclude his also playing D. Emelin is also no fighter. His grittiness will be primarily in checking. If Max hadn’t gotten injured, I don’t think we’d be seeing this: Emelin would have played defense in place of Diaz.

100%.
At this point, as you pointed out, he’s adjusting to N. Amer. ice surfaces, rather well I might add.
His vantage point as a forward changes completely, and I’m sure it would be too overwhelming for him…for now.

Agree that Weber should be the forward. He will be out muscled by the big Boston and Philly guys behind our net. Just watch it. Emelin is much tougher and he is learning fast. NO DIAZ. These are games for men.

I hope you’re not considering Weber better defensively solely by +/- statistics. Emelin has more hits, blocked shots and less giveaways than Weber does.

I agree with your assessment with regards to stressing over the use of Emelin as a 4th liner in practice, but +/- is far from a tell-all statistic. By that measure, Matt D’Agostini is the best defensive forward in the league and we all know that is not the case.

Agreed Jordio-oh. Emelin also has played against tougher opposition and had fewer O-zone starts than Weber. As I said, I think JM is just trying to see how he could have the best of all possible worlds against 2 formidable opponents. I at least give him credit for thinking about something and trying it out. I don’t excuse all the other questionable coaching decisions he’s made.

On lack of goal production and JM’s need to mix up lines: In the corporate management world there is this notion that if staff have core competencies then they can work anywhere in the organization. Martin’s approach seems the same.

He seems to believe that if you know how to play left wing, then you should be able to play on any forward line. This may be true of defensive play, where your responsibilities are structured and individualized, and focused on stopping the other team from creating scoring chances.

But offence requires you to create scoring chances, and that creativity is loosely structured and shared with your linemates, and needs the chemistry that develops and grows when lines are kept together.

Good analogy. May work in the corporate world. He seems to want to take the instincts of top players, finely honed over years of practice and break them down. Same kind of philosophy as the Armed forces. Break the individual and absorb them like the Borg into this mess